Category: Computers | Scottie's Tech.Info

A new type of App you’re gonna LOVE!

Until now, apps were for smartphones and tablets. But that’s all about to change with PWAs: Progressive Web Apps!

PWAs are a new(ish) type of app that is web-based.

In other words, PWAs are literally web sites + JavaScript encapsulated in a window on whatever gizmo you want to install them on.

That means you can use the same app on your phone, tablet, desktop, or laptop – whether you use Windows, linux, or Mac.

Progressive Web Apps also work differently than normal apps, making them a bit more secure and privacy-oriented than traditional native apps.

So, what are these things and how do they work?

Windows 10 1903 Update: What’s New?

Another new version of Windows 10!

A new update to Windows 10 was released a few weeks back, and this time the roll-out seemed to be way smoother than the last version – which is nice.

I got the update fairly quickly this time around, which almost never happens.

The update went off without a hitch. Naturally, I immediately started poking around to see what changed.

Well, not much… But as usual, there are a few things to re-tweak!

Why webmail is just a really bad idea

I’m always amazed at how many people these days still use webmail.

From Gmail to Yahoo Mail, it seems everyone enjoys the convenience of no crappy e-mail program, easily accessible e-mail from any device, and free data storage In the Cloud^TM.

In the case of Gmail, you can even use the same e-mail account on your smartphone. Yay, even more data for Google!

Naturally, there are huge drawbacks to the webmail approach, the biggest of which is privacy.

From Day One, webmail has been hoovering up all kinds of data. Recently, the world discovered that – duh – it’s worse than we think!

D’OH! Fix your add-ons in Firefox 66.0.3

Oopsy!

With Firefox version 66.0.3, you probably found that all your add-ons have disappeared.

Firefox disables them and tells you that they are not compatible.

Not to worry: There’s a super-easy fix to get them back.

And you don’t have to reinstall them or anything…

Jack up your Windows audio with Voicemeeter

If you’ve ever tried to do any kind of serious audio processing on a Windows puter, you know just how crappy the basic Win audio mixer and controls are.

Want to connect a digital mixer via USB to your puter? Good luck getting your recording software to work properly with both audio in and out.

Want to route audio from one app to another, like from recording software to Skype? Good luck with that, too.

Fortunately, a buddy of mine recently introduced me to a fabulous range of (free) software that turbocharges Windows audio.

Did I mention it’s free?

The #1 piece of computer advice that no one ever takes

Well, okay, that’s not entirely correct.

It would be more accurate to say it’s the #1 piece of advice that no one ever remembers to take – at the right time.

I’m talking, of course, about the Almighty Restart.

But I don’t just mean rebooting Windows…

Or linux, or Android, or macOS, or whatever…

Another reason to skip WiFi and go Full Ethernet

These days, WiFi is everywhere. Even your washing machine probably has it. 😉

I typically don’t recommend using WiFi due to the huge amount of evidence indicating that it’s probably not the best thing for your health.

But there’s another reason to go back to cables…

WiFi is quite often WAAAY slower than most people think. In fact, it’s very rare that you will get anywhere near the maximum speeds advertised when you buy a WiFi access point or router.

What to do, what to do?

PayPal and AliExpress slow? It might be CloudFlare’s DNS

In May 2018, I posted this article: Speed up your browsing with CloudFlare’s public DNS

In that post, I recommended CloudFlare’s DNS, 1.1.1.1. At the time, it was quite fast, and worked perfectly.

Fast forward to today, and I’m afraid that’s no longer the case.

If you switched to CloudFlare’s DNS and you’ve noticed that things like paying via PayPal have become almost useless, read on!

Is Firefox Content Blocking screwed up?

Recently, Mozilla introduced a fabulous new feature to Firefox: Content Blocking!

The idea is that Firefox will automagically block the tracking processes of web sites to increase your privacy.

By default, this tracking should only be enabled in Private Browsing Mode, which makes sense. You don’t want everyone’s web site experiences to be suddenly broken.

One minor detail: It appears that for many people, “broken” is exactly what Content Blocking is…

Big Data, spying, & 5G pushers: Who are THEY??

We hear a lot of about “THEY”. Big data violates our privacy, new potentially dangerous tech like 5G is pushed by “them”, and so on.

But just who is this “they“, anyway?

It turns out, the answer is: It’s complicated!

The best place to look is the big data/spying nonsense. The real history of the internet gives a pretty good idea of just how it all works.

When you lump greedy CEOs together with power-hungry (and often paranoid) politicians, and then toss in some Tech Evangelists for good measure, you get exactly what we have today…